What to cook for dinner tonight: 40 ideas by time and by what you have

The short answer: answer three questions: how much time do you have, what is in the fridge, and who is eating? Then pick from the 40 ideas below, sorted by cooking time. If you are short on both time and ideas, make pasta, quesadillas or fried rice, which only need pantry staples.

Deciding what to cook is often harder than cooking. This page does the deciding for you. Pick your time slot, scan the list, and go.

The 3-question shortcut

1. Time: 20 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour or more?
2. Main ingredient: chicken, ground beef, eggs, pasta, rice, beans or frozen vegetables?
3. Effort: one pan, hands-off oven or slow cooker, or no cooking at all?

10 dinners ready in 20 minutes or less

1. Cheese and bean quesadillas with salsa
2. Pesto pasta with cherry tomatoes
3. Egg fried rice with frozen peas and carrots
4. Vegetable omelet with a side salad
5. Burrito bowls with rice, beans and corn
6. Ground beef tacos
7. Shrimp stir-fry over microwave rice
8. Buttered noodles with parmesan and steamed broccoli
9. Naan pizzas with mozzarella and toppings
10. Grilled cheese and tomato soup

10 dinners ready in 30 minutes

1. Chicken stir-fry with vegetables
2. One-pan sausage and peppers
3. Taco salad
4. Fish tacos
5. Spaghetti with meat sauce
6. Chicken fajita skillet
7. Shakshuka with crusty bread
8. Teriyaki chicken rice bowls
9. Lemon garlic shrimp pasta
10. Black bean and sweet potato tacos

10 hands-off dinners (sheet pan, oven or slow cooker)

1. Sheet-pan chicken thighs with potatoes and green beans
2. Sheet-pan sausage and roasted vegetables
3. Baked chicken parmesan
4. Slow cooker pulled pork sandwiches
5. Slow cooker chili
6. Pot roast with carrots
7. Baked ziti
8. Stuffed peppers
9. Oven-baked salmon with asparagus
10. Casserole with chicken, rice and broccoli

Many of these are covered in our sheet pan dinners, slow cooker recipes and one-pot meals lists.

10 comfort dinners when you have an hour

1. Chicken noodle soup
2. Beef stew
3. Lasagna
4. Meatloaf with mashed potatoes
5. Chicken pot pie
6. Baked macaroni and cheese
7. Homemade pizza
8. Pot of chili with cornbread
9. Roast chicken with vegetables
10. Shepherd's pie

Dinner by main ingredient

Stop deciding every night

Plan the week once. Write seven dinners, shop from one list and repeat the ones that worked. The Meal Planner & Grocery List ($3.99) gives you a weekly dinner grid and a matching grocery list, and our easy dinner ideas and family dinner ideas pages have more ideas to fill it. Keep your family favorites in one place with a Family Recipe Binder ($6.99).

How to stop running out of dinner ideas

Keep a short rotation of 10 meals that your household reliably eats, and treat the ideas above as a way to swap one or two each month. Repeat meals are not a failure: most families eat the same handful of dinners on a loop. A weekly theme, such as pasta on Monday, tacos on Tuesday and soup on Wednesday, removes most of the nightly decisions.

Stock the kitchen so any idea works

• Pantry: pasta, rice, canned tomatoes, canned beans, stock, tortillas and oil.
• Fridge: eggs, cheese, a few vegetables and a sauce or two.
• Freezer: chicken, ground meat or beans, frozen vegetables and bread.

With those in place, most of the 20-minute and 30-minute ideas above need only one fresh ingredient.

When you have almost nothing

Make eggs with toast and a vegetable, pasta with garlic, oil and cheese, or a quesadilla with whatever is in the crisper. A frozen vegetable, a can of beans and a grain make a bowl in minutes. These are not glamorous dinners, but they keep you from ordering takeout when the fridge looks empty.

Cooking for different groups

Cooking for kids favors simple, separate components such as tacos or build-your-own bowls. For picky eaters, serve one familiar item next to the new dish. For a couple, a sheet-pan meal or stir-fry makes cleanup easy, and for one person, cook a double portion and eat the rest tomorrow.